Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use The New Report to the Club of Rome

About this book

In 1971, the Club of Rome published Limits to Growth, arguing that the world was going to run out of essential resources. The book was a phenomenon, and the reaction to its premise was immediate and worldwide. Now, 25 years later, Factor Four seeks to provide the solution. It argues that this lies in using resources more efficiently - in feasible ways, which can already be achieved, even at negative cost|. These advances are not speculative, dependant on yet-to-be-made technological progress. They are available now, and the book contains a wealth of examples and ideas - in transport, construction, energy, materials, markets, taxes and more - to show how much more can be generated from much less.

Contents

Introduction - More for Less. Part 1 50 Examples of Quadrupling Resource Productivity: 20 Examples of Revolutionising Energy Productivity; 20 Examples of Revolutionising Material Productivity; 10 Examples of Revolutionizing Transport Productivity. Part 2 Making it Happen - Improving Profitability: If Markets Create the Problem, Can They Also Provide Much of the Answer?; Buying and Selling Efficiency; Reward What We Want, Not the Opposite; Ecological Tax Reform. Part 3 A Sense of Urgency: The Challenge From Rio; Avalanches of Matter - The Forgotten Agenda; Unsatisfactory Part-Solutions; We May Have 50 Years Left to Close the Gaps. Part 4 A Brighter Civilization: Green Economics; Trade and the Environment; Non-Material Wealth.

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